The One-Eyed God
by Amulet Misty
Summary: In/Spectre In which the Yōkai ask Kotoko to become their god. [Twelve Shots of Summer: Quarter Queller]


**The One-Eyed God**

' _It's so warm.'_

That was the first thought that she had as her consciousness returned to her. The warmth cradled her, almost pulling her back into the realms of sleep. As she breathed in through her nose, however, she realised that something was off. No, that was not right; it didn't feel like anything was 'wrong', but the scent that she took in was not one she expected. Instead of the faint traces of lilac that should have originated from under her pillow, she caught a strong whiff of fresh grass. Not only was the scent different, but now she was certain that her head wasn't lying on the usual softness of a pillow. _Strange…_

Opening her eyes, the scenery that greeted her dazed her momentarily. She seemed to be outdoors, but she was sure that the last time she remembered, her mother had tucked her into her own bed. Sitting herself up, a few leaves fell off her, joining the pile that she had been sleeping on. She pinched herself on the cheeks to check if she was dreaming, but that didn't seem to be the case. Taking in more of her surroundings, she was enclosed in some sort of circular pit in the middle of the forest, the leaves from the trees at the top filtering light down to her. The pit she was in was at least a storey deep, much too deep to be a trap for an animal.

"Mama? Papa?" she called out. There was no reply; all was quiet.

The silence itself was quite odd. She had gone on trails with her grandparents in the countryside before, and the forest would never be this quiet. Normally, she would have heard the chirp of a bird or the buzz of insects by now.

 _Very strange._ It was strange, but she felt oddly calm.

A second glance at the walls of the pit around her told her that attempting to scale up the wall would be a waste of her energy. It looked impossible to escape from here on her own.

If escaping was impossible, maybe she would try to think of why she was here in the first place. She ruled out sleepwalking; she had never sleepwalked before, and there wasn't an area that looked like this anywhere near where she lived. She was certain that her parents loved her, so them abandoning her here wasn't a viable thought either. Kidnapping was a possibility, but this was an odd place for a person to take a child you wanted to kidnap to. _Unless I wasn't kidnapped by a person._ She had seen a movie with her parents recently, and there was a child that got taken away by yōkai. Of course, that was just a movie and yōkai weren't real.

"Excuse me yōkai, are you there?"

She had only said this out loud to amuse herself and she wasn't really expecting a reply.

"Yes, we are!"

"She knew we were here, I told you she was the one!"

"Please!"

"Please be our god of wisdom!"

 _Oh. I guess they_ are _real._

"My lady! Here is the item you requested!" said the miniature goblin with an enormous nose.

"I thought I said that you can call me Kotoko," the young girl reminded the yōkai, accepting the red bean bun that she had asked for.

She wasn't really that hungry but she hadn't had a bun in a long time and the yōkai seemed very eager to please her. There were about a dozen small yōkai that popped up around her, but every so often she could see one of the larger ones look down from above the top of the pit. While they were huge, none of them seemed particularly threatening. One of the trees giving them shade moved along, having been another curious yōkai, letting more sunlight fall on the group. Some of them squeaked slightly, surprised, but they remained with her nonetheless. The smaller ones were all very peculiar shapes: some looked like animals such as a dog with a squashed face, or a hen with a cloudy tail; others were a bit more monster-like, such as a blob with several protruding eyes. Again, they were all harmless enough.

"No, we wouldn't dare be so presumptuous," the goblin- yōkai replied. Kotoko was sure that all the yōkai here had proper names, but she hadn't been interested enough before to have learnt them.

"Alright." She took another much of her bun. "So why do you want _me_ to be your 'god'?"

The yōkai all started chattering at once.

"You look like you could be wise!"

"I saw you help a cat get down from a tree once!"

"You're a good person."

"You didn't cry when you got here!"

"My lady is very cute!"

"You could sense us, you're special!"

"Everyone agreed!"

They went on like this for about five minutes. There didn't seem to be one sole reason, and many of those reasons seemed to be misunderstandings. Surely there were many people out there much kinder than her. Plus, she was sure if they kidnapped a fan of the occult, they might have guessed being kidnapped by yōkai as well. She wasn't scared of them, but she wasn't really scared of strange looking things. Now if they had tied her up in a tree, she might have cried, due to her fear of heights. She couldn't pick out a distinctive reason why _she_ should be the 'god of wisdom'. Plus, she was only eleven. She wasn't sure if she was old enough to be a god.

Still, besides the 'kidnapping' bit, all the yōkai seemed to be friendly.

"If I become your 'god of wisdom' can I go home?" Kotoko asked. "My parents might be looking for me."

A chorus of yeses rang out.

"You can't become our god if you don't truly agree, my lady," one of them piped up. "We'll send you home if you really don't accept."

Another round of yesses. Though the tone of the yesses was significantly less enthusiastic.

They did take her away without asking, but at least they were willing to send her back and did give her a choice. She could forgive them for kidnapping her; the yōkai probably had a different line of thinking than humans, anyway.

The yōkai had earlier explained what a 'god of wisdom' was. She would be a communicator and problem-solver for yōkai, listening to their problems and trying to resolve them.

"If I accept, I won't have to help _all_ the time, would I? I still have to go to school, and my parents would be disappointed if I had to stop going." Also, she got a certificate for being best in the year for Japanese last week, and they bought her new ribbons; she didn't want to give up the presents she got for good grades.

"Of course, my lady! You're still young and already very wise."

"You'll become more wise after going to school!"

"I think you have to say 'wiser' instead of 'more wise'," Kotoko corrected.

"See! Only you are worthy of being our god of wisdom!"

Once more, all the yōkai turned hopeful gazes to her. The yōkai weren't very smart creatures themselves, it seemed. That's why they wanted a god of wisdom in the first place. She wasn't sure if she was really the best choice they could have, but it didn't sound too bad. If they ran errands like buying food for her, it could be fun.

"So, will you be our god of wisdom?"

Kotoko smiled. "Yes, I will."

There was a lot of cheering and the small yōkai piled on top of her affectionately.

She just hoped that she wouldn't disappoint them as a god.

She was nothing special, after all.

When she awoke the next time, gone was the beautiful forest and instead she was on a hospital bed. That wasn't the only thing that was gone.

Perhaps she should have been more shocked. Or perhaps angry that the yōkai didn't tell her they were going to take some part of her away.

"Was there someone with you?" The woman who came to question her about her whereabouts in the past two weeks (it really only felt like a few hours) couldn't see the yōkai that had just popped up on her shoulder.

Once Kotoko saw a small, black cat-like yōkai wandering across her hospital table, she felt elated – _how cute!_ The woman didn't notice it at all. _So they took my left leg and my right eye…to make me into a god?_ The cat tapped the mug on her table top. _That's not a bad trade._

She supposed that as a god, she would have to learn the names of all sorts of yōkai from now on.

"I don't really remember." She picked up the hot chocolate that had been provided for her, deciding that she probably should keep her experience with the yōkai to herself. "Yeah."

The woman didn't push her to answer more questions after that.

Afterwards, there would be many people who would take pity on her for losing her eye and leg. Kotoko wasn't too bothered about it, though. After rehabilitation, she could walk on her prosthetic just fine.

Besides, she may have lost an eye but she could see so many more wonderful things because of it.

She may not have been something special before, but she certainly was now.

* * *

' _In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.'_

* * *

 **A/N: Tadaa! Look who's actually on time for TSOS! Who would've thought? That said I only started this on Saturday morning because I wasn't sure what I wanted to write. I had the title down, but wasn't sure if I wanted to go more along with the proverb or try and find an actual one-eyed character, while still sticking with the prompt. Luckily, I think that I managed to hit all three. Though you can be the judge of how well I hit the prompt itself ahahaha -**

Prompt - #1 – Approach

 **Anyway, there wasn't an In/Spectre section on ffnet so I had to go and request one. It didn't show up in time for posting weekend, unfortunately. Figures this would happen to me during the TSOS I actually have my stuff done on time xD Anyway...here it is...in the misc. anime/manga section.**

 **-Dina (4/06/17)**


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